Some reasons I’m glad I have daughters

[Editor’s note: Lance Berkman and his wife Cara have four children, ranging in age from infancy to 8 years old. Berkman was born in Waco, graduated from high school in New Braunfels, attended college at Rice and played all 11 of his Major League Baseball seasons for the Houston Astros.]One of the hidden advantages of having girls is, not to sound too arrogant, if you have a son and you’re a successful athlete, a lot of times, it’s really hard for the son to live up to the expectations that people will put on him because of what his dad was able to accomplish.

I’ve been successful in baseball, and it would be a burden if I had sons.

The blessing in disguise in having girls is that you don’t really have to worry about that. In our society, and you have girls and they don’t achieve athletically, it’s no big deal.

I think there are a lot of things that they like to do that I like to do. They like to play ball and play catch just like boys do.

But the good thing about girls is that they’re not consumed with it.

They’ll play for 20 minutes, and they’ll get tired of it and want to go inside becasue it’s too hot, and that’s fine with me.

I remember before we had kids saying, “I want all boys,” because it would be fun for them to do the same kind of things that I enjoyed doing growing up. But when I started having girls, what I realized is that they enjoy doing those things, too.

So I take my girls hunting, I take them to the ranch with me. I take them horseback riding. When we work cows, they’re right there in the middle of it.

Having girls doesn’t limit you in any way, in fact in a lot of ways it’s better because you get to enjoy all those things without any of the expectations that might come with having boys.